Thread to talk about the actor...oh fuck it. You know what to do
>>749 I don't remember which month - maybe April? I'll try to track it down this eve. Yes, it would take time to arrange everything, but not nearly as long as it would for a film. It doubtless helped that KB is the President of RADA. And if they didn't do open castings calls, that also would have allowed for speed.
Imagining TH talking to KB about his love like makes me think of KB's uproarious laughter on the GNS when Tom was asked about Hiddlestoners....
7 YEARS?! WTF! Oh and how convenient when TH still is on damage control duty. What other damage control/distractions will he announce when Swift's album releases? This man is too much.
If he and Branagh were legit thinking up something for 7 freaking years it wouldn't be a charity show for their expensive school that runs for barely a month. TH is so transparent on what he's trying to do.
And one article (misquoting) said 20 years! If they'd really started discussing this 7 years ago, that's during Wallander or Thor filming. I'd hope at that time KB's end of the convo would have been "Sorry, but you're not ready yet, love!"
>>753 20 years ago? LMAO! So Tom and Ken have been discussing this since Tom was 16 and this is the best they could come up with? /sarcasm
His stans are reloading the DM article and downvoting any comment that laughs at that headline. So defensive. Brit tabloids always trolls celebs like no other, Hiddles ain't safe from it.
I was about to chime in with what a clever plan doing Hamlet for charity to fund RADA students is, and then I ran across this horrid new DM article about Tom and Hamlet where they call this performance "tiny" and make the headline all about Taylor Swift! They printed all the pics from July 4th party with the water slide, and highlight Tom's elite education. The British has not let anything go, and are going for clicks. Wow. Like Cumberrbatch, Tom is so well trained in Shakespeare that his interpretation will be solid. But more and more when I watch his performances I find that he uses his academic research skills to create the perfectly structured textbook Shakespearean character as it is on the page. But, unlike Ben Whishaw or Andrew Scott, Tom's interpretations of these classical parts never really surprise me. And Tom seems to lack the spontanaity/supreme intensity/animalistic attack of maybe a Richard Burton. When Tom next does a full Shakespearean production on stage, I'd love him to do work with a true visionary surrealist director like Julie Taymor or Ivo van Hove, b/c they don't think that acting should be just be about the perfect elucidation of the text, and would give him a jolt of creativity, and further distinguish his next classical production from all of the others that have been staged in London.
>>755 I meant to say "the British press" have not let anything go. They usually are quite supportive of their thespians. I didn't mean all Brits, just the press. So sorry.
>>755 I think he needs to stop being perfect in his search for acting perfection.
During the brief High Rise promotion at TIFF 2015, Jeremy Irons was quoted saying, about TH, something like 'think of what a great actor he'll be once he gets more life experience under his belt.' I realized Irons was right when I couldn't put my finger on the hollow ring I was getting from the performance in TNM.
>>756 We've discussed before how the British press really turned on him during Tayto, and were still pretty savage as of KSI. But so far it's only the DM using this news to keep up the clickbait. And (not sure if this is good or not) the DM quickly turned to the current news - fans and the tickets ballot: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4754158/Tom-Hiddleston-star-Shakespeare-s-tragedy-Hamlet.html
>>757 It's a shame there are no current plans (per the official site and their twitter responses to questions) to record this production. It would be fascinating to see if Tom's recent life experiences carry through to his performance. (I for one expect that "frailty, thy name is woman!" will be particularly charged.) So far I've only caught up to his Henriad, and I found his Prince Hal to be more technically proficient than realistic acting. His style did work well for me as King Henry, though.
How is Branagh regarded as a theatre director? He did bring a good performance out of Tom in Thor 1. And Tom seems to trust him, which might help him to be looser in this part.
Yeah so TH's true intentions are finally revealed to the surprise of no one http://blindgossip.com/?p=86395#more-86395
>>759 Not much of a blind, is it? Any of us here could have written this. BG have done this in the past, stated the obvious after the fact, I.e., when news has already broken. It's heartening to know he can 'still book jobs' or BG thinks he can because we haven't seen proof of that.
The bloom is off the rose for me but I don't want to see him going on Celebrity Big Brother. Nor do I want him to have to consider Sharknado III. But this is kinda him getting his cred back on the cheap. I have the feeling he's thinking these three weeks will rehabilitate him and then it's back to Hollywood for more leading man roles or OSCAH worthy parts. Don't know if that plan will work.
>>755 TH and Burton shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence. I wonder if he'll ever be able to reach the heights of Burton, O'Toole or Harris whose raw and realistic performances were in some part inspired by their lives and demons. I see him being more like Olivier, Hopkins and KB who are more about technical proficiency and skill. Both sets have passion and skill but it manifests itself differently in performances. >>758 And I'm not yet willing to put surviving a poorly received fauxmance up there with the hot crazy that was being in a relationship with Miss Taylor while smoking like a chimney and drinking like a fish. >>757 He's led a fairly sheltered and blessed life in many ways, which I don't begrudge him. However, that does tend to limit the experiences a person can draw upon when acting. I call it the Emma Watson phenomenon.
>>758 Branagh is a very accomplished Shakespeare director, both on stage and on film. He was 30 when he directed the film version of Henry V which is in my view an outstanding piece of work which has stood the test of time. I saw The Winter's Tale (which he also directed) - he hasn't lost his touch. His verse speaking is also outstanding. TH, in common with very many of the younger generation, needs to sharpen that up.
>>745 Well, I'd say it's, or at least was, a board of check and balances, so if blind apologists are unlikely to feel comfortable here, the same it's, or at least was, true for people merely wanting a place were they can hate on him without contradiction.
And maybe I shouldn't even be saying this since I don't post very much (there's hardly anything to post about, bless!), and maybe me being a non native of the English language gave me the wrong impression, but from what you posted it seems like you fall in the second option. I apologize if that's not the case, but when someone writes they are not someone's fan and then they proceed to list all the things they have been disliking about said someone since 2012 it makes it difficult to take it differently.
One more thing, CP was aimed at tumblr? Really? Guillermo Del Toro wrote the script thinking of TH's tumblr fans? Come on! Give a well established director a bit more credit.
Hello everyone!
I hope you are all well. I swear I only passed by to wish good holidays and not to scold, but then I read the news!
In the spirit of the checks and balances I've just written about and since anonsy isn't around anymore for the accuracy part, alas, I'll take it on my almost on the beach shoulders to point out a few things to add to the discussion.
At the beginning of May 2016 TH did an interview at BBC4's Front Row with Kermode and Mayo where when asked:"whether there were any other Shakespeare characters he'd like to take on." he said:"I do have my eyes on something...you'll find out very soon, I think." (the podcast is here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078x6kx)
So this Hamlet production was that, Branagh was busy with Dunkirk, the Garrick Theatre's season he presented and Murder on the Orient Express, ergo the delay. But TH's commitment to it predates Tay-tay.
As for reviews, of course there'll be reviews by critics, it's Branagh and it's Hamlet, the press will buy a ticket and go watch.
>>743 Anon, he went to CominCon and Yours Truly didn't style him! That's positive, also a guy groomed him so someone not connected to Yours Truly! Also positive. He is not caring about his fans, finally understood that there's not point in being nice to the press and, even if we never took that stance, after being accused of not doing anything practical about iniquity in the school system etc. he is partecipating in something practical that will benefit plenty of students for years to come and he was way in the background in the official photo! Kepp the faith Anon! :)
>>762 As a foreigner I agree with Branagh when he talks about the ease TH has with Shakespeare, he makes the verses very easy to follow. So does Rory Kinnear. If you say Branagh is even better (I only ever watched his Much to do about nothing but I didn't enjoy it very much) I'm now curious to see Branagh on stage. I missed the chance to watch Winter's Tale at the cinema (in my country famous plays of the year are show at the cinema)
>>764 COUCH POTATO!!!!!!
You're back! Forget Hamlet. This is the most exciting thing the board has had to deal with this year!
>>767 And I don't make you pay for it!
>>760 I hope his management or anyone with common sense around him tells him it takes more then a 3 week stint doing Hamlet to get your old reputation in Hollywood back.
>>763 I don't hate him but I don't like how he comes off sometimes. He just has this veneer of insincerity that I find sinister in a way, and no this isn't me confusing him with Loki.
I know actors aren't suppose to be 100% genuine but some can really hide it well through a natural charm while not sounding like a pretentious a-hole. It's a like/dislike outlook I have with him and i've wanted him to stop pandering to his fanbase for so long but not this abruptly.
It's one thing not pandering to them it's another just shunning them completely because of a miscalculation of what you could've thought you get away with in a contract relationship with someone, and than blaming the media and your fans for the bad outcome because it didn't go your way and not taking responsibility.
The thing with CP is that it was rewritten once TH took over the role once Cumberbatch dropped that it sounded like a bad fan fic, I doubt the original script was like this well...I hope. Also Del Toro kept pandering to Tom's fanbase specifically a bit too much at times. Del Toro is great at visuals but he lacks sometimes with writing.
Also while he shouldn't pander so much to the press anymore he also shouldn't be testy with them. He needs to make his transition to a serious actor more subtle because if not it'll just add more to this insincere persona he exudes.
Anyway, if my not so positive posts are an annoyance to the thread i'll just stick to lurking from this point on. No big deal.
>>764 Couch! Welcome back. I missed you and your analyses.
>>765 No YT, no LW because laying low for months. Made me wonder if they've all been put on hiatus for the time being.
>>766 Yeah, the connection makes me side her too, maybe she was not the one who got away after all.
>>769 Unknown, so are you a former fan? Or a really jaded fan?
>>769 Probably disappointed/annoyed fan. I liked him in the Thor 1 days, but like I said after Avengers he became a caricature of his former self.
>>769 >>772 No one is trying to make you leave based on your non-flowery opinions of TH. If nothing else, we are not nannies here. I can understand being annoyed with him. The past year feels like he's squandering his potential. I'm glad K:SI was relatively successful compared to the 3 movies before that.
>>774 I think he squandered his potential with Skull Island. He was miscast in that role and imo the movie was awful and his character was useless. He just hasn't either chosen good scripts or has been offered awful ones.
I never saw it. I never was interested in the Kong movies, ever.
>>769 I agree. When Jake Gyllenhaal decided he didn't want to do PR relationships anymore with staged pap photos following Reese Witherspoon and the really corny Thanksgiving pap walk with his his sister, his niece and Taylor Swift in 2011, he accepted responsibility for his own role in the drama, refused to talk to the press about his personal life ever again, and fired his whole team! Jake is in a different position than Tom was, since Jake wasn't so widely identified as a fame whore at the time, plus he was already a young Am. male Oscar nominee in a time where we hadn't seen an Am. young dramatic actor pop up, until Ryan Gosling and now Oscar Isaacs (and Bradley Cooper but he is not my fave.)
>>764 I remember that Kermode interview. And if that mystery project was indeed Charity Hamlet for RADA, and it was planned before Tayto, it's tragic that so much of of his choices are now coloured by and seen through the prism of that crazy summer. Any actor has self serving interests for doing charity work because it helps define your brand makes you seem empathetic, but in this instance Hamlet is now thought of his attempt to win back critical credibility. Ouch.
I've always wanted to see Tom on tv in an episode of Miss Marple on PBS, but not at this time: ) If his schedule is not blank by choice, maybe he needs a Colin Farrell level reboot to his career. He's a male drama school grad and an Olivier a recent golden globe award winner for worldwide hit miniseries. In the long run he will be fine, but maybe he won't he won't lead dramatic award bait films for a couple of years. He needs more theater, more Indy films in Europe with strong scripts, maybe another strong tv part like TNM, and to take supporting roles in films that have cohesive scripts and strong directors if available.
Well, to some of the media, even doing Hamlet for charity isn't enough to be taken all that seriously - note the title of this piece (despite the link text, it's about internet boyfriends): http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/news/a47103/tom-hiddleston-playing-hamlet-london/
Well, to some of the media, even doing Hamlet for charity isn't enough to be taken all that seriously - note the title of this piece (despite the link text, it's about internet boyfriends): http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/news/a47103/tom-hiddleston-playing-hamlet-lon don/
Sorry for the double post / phone not playing nicely with the site!
A different perspective on so many recent Hamlets: https://www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/2017/mark-shenton-can-many-hamlets/
>>779 Elle magazine confines to turn from Tom. Wow. But Ben Whishaw has never been an Internet bf! He's an astounding actor, but he's always been way too private, and now he happens to be married to a man. And nor is Jude Law, who got married and had kids very young and is too busy with his career and being a ladies man/slut puppy to be anyone's Internet bf. That's a stretch. Nor did Oscar Isaacs systematically and purposefully attempt to entertain fan girls with his online presence. Hamlet is a play that the the all male actors want to play, and that whole general public knows the title of and probably read in school, so producers will always get their money back if they stunt cast it.
>>782 Sorry. Elle magazine continues to turn from Tom, is what I meant to say.
A side note, the writer of the infamous TH GQ article focusing on spaghetti bolognese w/o pasta and TS fauxmancing, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, has a brand new New York Times Magazine article talking to Oprah about weight loss and exposing the diet industry! Apparently Taffy has struggled with body image issues and dieting for her whole life, and winds up crying over the phone to Miss O herself. The article is poignant and heartfelt, but Taffy just teased a TH reference in her twitter account that "You can be fat AND mistaken for Tom Hiddleston's girlfriend. What a world, right." I'm speechless. Taffy is on the move for fame, officially.
Twitter @taffyakner
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/magazine/weight-watchers-oprah-losing-it-in-the-anti-dieting-age.html?_r=0
>>764 Just to play devil's advocate, it also could be that in the May 2016 interview Tom was stretching the truth (as we've discussed recently). That said, and to clarify some of my earlier comments about this, I do think it's possible that he and KB have been discussing this possibility for as long as they've been working together. But I don't think Tom would really have been anywhere near ready for the role until now (and it's interesting that Branagh referred to this being Tom's "first time" in this title role - he might be thinking Tom will do it again someday).
>>777 Agree strongly that it's a shame that, if this project was planned pre-Tayto, it's now slightly tainted by his need to restore his reputation. How different would some reactions have been if this had been produced last May?
>>782 Not that Elle's good opinion is a big loss for him (in my opinion), but it is a 180 turn from how they treated him earlier in his career. It will be fascinating to see if his Hamlet regains him any favor, especially with the serious press. Will the Guardian ever forgive him?
>>784 Taffy has absolutely worked that GQ article and the "mystery brunette" pap shots for all they're worth. And she ended up working for the NY Times. Maybe she should have given Tom advice about his career rather than his love life!
And a second "too many Hamlets?" article: http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/hamlet-too-many-tom-hiddleston-kenneth-branagh_44267.html
She has some good ideas for roles Tom could have tackled instead. Personally, I'd like to have seen his King Scot. (And Berowne, yes, please!)
Welcome back, Coach! Enjoy the beach.
>>764 He doesn't seem to say that in this podcast (I only listened to his segment - minus the singing! - so it could be in another part). Maybe he said it in another interview. Without insider info it's hard to say when this was decided. I personally don't think this was seven or 1+ years in the making. They probably have always talked about doing a stage production together but the very unusual nature of this one (utterly stacked in favor of TH: charity, short run, difficult to review, hot ticket in town) makes me think it is a quickly constructed response to Tayto.
No Yours Truly and LW might be explained by the fact that he didn't do any press. I have a feeling (an awful one!) they'll be back come Nov. promo. Is it time for another board prayer circle? Or an exorcism?
>>769 Unknown, we've all disagreed on this board. We're still here. And we can handle the negative. ;)
>>779 We've talked about how he went from hero to zero with Elle. It was somewhat repeated with the Guardian during Tayto. GQ seems to be his go-to now. How fickle is magazine.
>>784,786 Yep. If only TH could have parlayed Tayto like Taffy did that article.
When I asked how long everyone thought this had been in the planning, I hadn't forgotten the interview last year in which he said he had another Shakespeare project in mind.
I am not sure that this was necessarily that project. It could have been something quite different (maybe it was poor old James Ivory's Richard II, who knows!).
I have to say that I share Anon.'s view that this feels like something of fairly recent date. TH showed relatively little interest in his alma mater previously, and I think these RADA sightings started in spring this year (possibly with the KSI screening there in early March). I wonder if somebody planted the seed then. He has been seen in the vicinity a number of times since.
>>777 It's only tainted for US/UK gossipy, click-bait articles, and fans that are still thinking about it as first thing. The NYT had not mention of TS for example, and if you check news from serious publication from other countries again no mention of TS.
>>782,786 ELLEUK's editor is different, from 2013, and the magazine also took a different turn. I think we mentioned it last year.
>>785,788,789 I think it was that for the dubious answer he gave, like it didn't depend exclusively on his availability. Ivory seemed to be waiting for TH, here felt like TH was waiting for someone else. If KB was only ready this year it could only happen in Sept. because of Marvel and Thor 3 promo.
>>786 After I recently read a tweet of hers, posted soon after the GQ interview, I changed my view of that GQ interview, in part at least. Which in turn partly changed my point of view on tayto - I'm crossing my fingers that nothing will happen to make me change my mind again!
Speaking of pandering fans: "Game of Thrones's Sophie Turner: 'I got a job over a better actress because I had more followers' "
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2017/08/03/game-throness-sophie-turner-got-job-better-actress-had-followers/
Do you think she realizes she just gave her fans the power to make or destroy her career? Probably not.
>>769 Sorry Unknown, maybe my post wasn't that clear, I didn't mean that your dislike could be too much for the board, but that the board might be too much for you, if you thought that this was a place just to dislike the guy. As the others said we often disagree, mainly because we write in light fun, and changing one's mind is no big deal here since we all realize that we only know bits and pieces.
Nobody could have guessed that SF and Sian were bff, or that Sian and TH still hanged out. If anyone had offered that idea we would have pointed out how it didn't make sense, we would have sounded very reasonable and very competent. And we would have been completely wrong.
That's all, if you like it here, by all means keep posting.
Oh hi Couch and other oldies and newbies.
I was jarred from my long TH induced slumber earlier this week by news of his Hamlet. Unfortunately the article I read was the Times, and to quote Branagh:
“The play also asks, ‘What is reality? What are facts? And whose facts are they?’ In the age of fake news, our audience can’t avoid that connection. And underpinning that rage, it also talks of the effects of ‘the poison of deep grief’.”
Fake news... what is reality... the poison of deep grief...
This could be catastrophically worse than leftover bolognese at dawn.
I think regardless of the possibility of years of preliminary discussions, Sir Ken and not yet Sir TH intend to draw deeply on the summer of (no) regrets. To date it's the source of his greatest anguish and an untapped goldmine of torment.
>>796 Hello!
Hopefully he won't think of dressing him up with a tanktop.
>>796 Oh god...does this mean this interpretation of Hamlet will be Tom sympathetic? I really hope they don't take the political fake news propaganda and try to skew that concept in favor of TH and him getting laughed at in the media because...just no. That's not fake news, that's your PR plan failing because it wasn't well thought-out.
I wonder if TH is still trying to blame everyone else but himself over last summer. Has he seen and accepted last summer for what it was or is he still in denial?
>>766 Hello Couch! Welcome back!
I had meant I side eye Sian, not SF. It's mostly because of how superficial her understanding of feminism and other life observations like social media seem like but then again it doesn't sound that different from TH and what comes across as his understanding. Probably why the two are friends.
I had no idea about SF and liking the Casey Affleck tweets. Guess she's one not to rock the Hollywood boat lest she loses work because of it, considering she's still at the bottom of the ladder career wise.
>>796,799,801 The only thing worse than a Tayto inspired Hamlet is a Brexit inspired Hamlet. I can't imagine that was what KB was referring to with his very flowery language. But of course it was, allegedly, the reason TH decided to have some fun and blow off steam with his one true love TS. That was my favorite Tayto article...until Taffy's bestill my beating bolognese one.
>>790 My "tainted" was too strong a word - "colored by" is better.
>>796 Hi Anonon! I couldn't find the Times article, but the full interview with KB in the Stage is worth a read. Taken together, his quotes make it sound like a more political/power/communication take than "fake news": https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/interviews/2017/kenneth-branagh-directing-hamlet-tom-hiddleston-natural-shakespeare-genuine-rapport -- somehow I don't remember any references to journalism in Shakespeare's text....
>>797 Would the shirt read "I <heart> Ophelia" or "I <heart> Getrude"?
>>796, >>799, >>801, >>802 While I think that there will be a lot of emotion to mine between TH's reaction to Brexit and whatever the heck it is he currently feels about the disaster that was Tayto, I would hope for both his and KB's sake that they'll avoid anything that could be interpreted as being even remotely about Tom. If the underlying reason for doing this production now is to rehabilitate Tom's reputation, the last thing needed is any association with Tom the person rather than Tom the classical actor.
I also heard echoes of US politics in KB's description. Though I think Claudius did a much better job of running his court!
>>803 I vote for Ophelia, after she dies XD (I'm a terrible person)
TheStage article is why I mentioned Brexit, though like you I think it pretty much can refer to any country right now, we are not short of wanna be tyrants. This quote especially
"“Hamlet always speaks loudly to the world,” he says, eyes sparkling. “And at present, it roars. It is a play that talks of power grabs and demagogues.”"
I hope it's good.
>>802 Anon. I missed your sense of humour!
>>798 Couch - good point - I am 95% sure it was at TIFF2015, because that's around the time I read it. But it may very well have been that I was reading a old quote from the Hollow Crown era.
>>788 GQ seems to be the current confessional for male celebrities - e.g., Calvin Harris last summer, TH this winter, Brad Pitt recently.
>>789 You're right, there doesn't seem to be much record of him openly supporting RADA except for an occasional speaking appearance or video interview. So he's doing Sir Ken a favor as well as helping himself.
>>793 Ah, the ever-shifting GQ article - which of Taffy's tweets changed your view?
>>804 I think it will be good, but will it be great?
Well, the school play wheeze seems to have been very effective so far. A quick look at the #RADAHamlet hashtag on Twitter and on tumblr indicates that there are a lot of disappointed punters who have remembered why they were 😍 for the man in the first place.
>>808 As I recall, Taffy told TH and her friend "you're better than that," which I think could mean either "you deserve better than that" or "you're better than the bad person that your ex/the public is making you out to be." Or maybe both!
>>809 So far, there's been much less wailing, tearing of hair or clothing, or gnashing of teeth than I expected on either Twitter or Tumblr. Will be interesting to hear about the makeup of the audience; maybe some regular theatre-goers won some slots.
>>808 Taffy should not play favorites here. I know TS has a bad history, especially now with the Kanye tapes, but I bet the truth of the whole matter is in the middle. So no one should take TH side totally as well since he had his own ulterior motives and I believe that he did use TS's fame for his own advantage just like TS said. Taffy is proving herself too enthralled over TH to the point of looking like she has low self-esteem just because the Daily Mail thought she was TH new girlfriend and she's been riding on TH's train ever since.
I do agree that I bet TH did tell her stuff off the record what was the real deal between him and TS since TH seems to lack any close friends to rant to and just had to pick a GQ reporter to do it for some odd reason. That GQ interview was nothing but damage control and heavily calculated. Its funny thinking about it now since at that time TS was already with her new boyfriend at the time and it just makes TH look like an even bigger fool.
I also agree that TH and TS broke up way earlier before the September announcement. Probably around that time of the rumored argument they had in early August.
I think TS broke up with him. You can tell my some pictures that she was not into him and he wasn't selling their relationship well. His body language with her was really suspect; hands in pockets at all times, even some pictures where he look downright miserable and the awkward answers he gave everytime a reporter asked him about this woman he so called loves but didn't want to acknowledge her. In some pictures when he looks at her she never looks at him she looked somewhere else. They also never really smiled. These two really didn't sell this "relationship" at all, yet he's the actor and she isn't but he couldn't sell it. That's why I don't consider him that talented, but whatever.
Both TH and TS are pathetic but I also feel that in some way they've learned, yes even TS, at least she's keeping a low profile...for now. And TH of course but he's changing persona's too abruptly that it just makes his past persona look more superficial and insincere.
Whatever the case may be it will be brought up again once TS album releases. Neither TH or TS are victims no matter how hard TH fans think he was duped. He's in the business, everyone knows TS reputation, he just didn't care and foolishly thought he could handle it and probably thought he could control her a bit.
Hopefully the Hamlet audience won't consist of mainly TH fangirls. I think TH has moved on from his heartthrob era something he should've been doing a long time ago, but now it just looks like a tryhard effort to get in the good graces of the public again.
>>796,803 This reminds me of the hi-larry TH soundbite where an actor = archaeologist, anthropologist, all the -ologists putting a character under glass (?)...for the camera.... He was digging/mining then as well.
>>799 Of course he's blaming everyone else, and their cameraphones, at least publicly. I suspect in his mind as well. We all have those mortifying, self-inflicted moments your sub-conscious holds on to and then throws up from time to time to make you cringe? I have a dozen spread out over 30 years. He has 20+ from three months in 2016. And those are just the ones we know about. Blaming someone else may be the only way he can sleep.
>>809 Do we think RADA has had a SOP briefing from the Donmar? I'm sure many non-TH fans submitted, mostly because of Sir Ken. But I have the suspicion that most ballot entries came from the ranks of the TH fan club. This may be the tip of the hot mess fan iceberg that will be Hamlet: The Attempted Redemption.
Did Miss Unrelated get a ticket? Will she interrupt a performance to ask her muy importante question (which TH totally wants her to ask)? Will hater Hugh Laurie need to be there every night to stop her? Inquiring minds want to know.
>>808 Here's something I don't think we talked aobut 6 months ago: Taffy said TH's dad taught him scrupulosity: "He learned the basics of scrupulosity, though, from his father, who taught him that there is right and wrong, fact and myth, and that sometimes you have to work hard to spot the difference."
Here's the definition of the word from Wikipedia, because I'd never heard the word (though I'd heard of scruples, and scrupulous):
"Scrupulosity is characterized by pathological guilt about moral or religious issues. It is personally distressing, objectively dysfunctional, and often accompanied by significant impairment in social functioning. Scrupulosity is characterized by pathological guilt about moral or religious issues. It is personally distressing, objectively dysfunctional, and often accompanied by significant impairment in social functioning. It is typically conceptualized as a moral or religious form of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), although this categorization is empirically disputable.
Was Taf saying he suffers from OCD? Could his downplayed demeanor at SDCC mean he's under treatment?
>>813 I wonder if Taffy was using that word in the philosophical or religious sense or if she was simply using it as a noun based off of the word scruple. In the Catholic world this is an issue I deal with. I don't think any parent would teach his child to feel guilt where there was no sin, which is what this is in Catholicism. Perhaps his father taught him the opposite of the concept, or how not to suffer from it??
>>814 Not being Catholic, this is the first I've encountered this religious/ethical concept. He's talked about 'not feeling guilty about pleasures' in interviews, when asked. I remember that TH said he's CoE but not religious.
I suspect she means that he learned to have scruples via his father (i.e. scrupulousness, which as Anon. says is a different thing). She probably thought scrupulousity sounded fancier.
>>812 She did not, and is now policing the interwebs for those selling their second ticket to the highest bidder (though fair enough in this case).
>>816>>815 Yes, I think the same. If she meant the 'OCD of sin,' then she would have capitalized the S, one would hope. She's used a word thinking it's clever but actually it makes her writing uncertain - a no-no for non-fiction. But then that article was mostly fiction.
I won't pass judgment on how well TH took up the lesson on right and wrong. I suspect Mr. Hiddleston senior, like many of his generation, thinks of the subject in terms of black and white. Junior seems to have found shades, endless shades.
>>816 It was a silly question on my part, she's probably red-flagged on a list under the code name 'Hell No.' Policing...more like shopping. Girl would sell a kidney, maybe two - dialysis would be a small price to pay for 😍😍😍😍! (FYI A kidney emoji doesn't exist.)
>>817 Tumblr indicates that a surprisingly large number of nutters have scored tickets. I slightly smell a rat. Not, I think, that RADA has done anything to skew the ballot. I do rather think that some people have entered multiple times using new email addresses and fake phone numbers. You can nominate your tickets as a "gift" to be collected by someone else, who must turn up with ID in their name - so I suppose there is nothing to stop you signing up as M Mouse and nominating your real self to collect the tickets (for which identity you would have ID).
Here is the great man in rehearsal: https://instagram.com/p/BXlOYjZFU40/
>>818 That's a trick I hadn't thought of (and I have a fairly evil mind that way; fortunately my scruples prevent from acting on those ideas)! And I did see a person who had 15 family and friends enter the ballot, so (s)he probably is getting her ticket by gift.
>>819 That's also the photo being used for the official picture on the Branagh Theatre site and Facebook.
Speaking of Branagh's troupe, does anyone know anything about the future plans? I know they did a season at the Garrick, but haven't had a chance to research if they're planning another season.
>>820 Oops, meant to include the link to the Branagh co. page: http://www.branagh-theatre.com/
Another tactic fans/nutters are using is tweeting anyone who won the ballot who might be remotely in need of a +1. Though so far I haven't noticed anyone being obnoxious about it.
I keep telling myself that as much as I'd have liked to see this production, it likely will be full houses of swooning fangirls.
Dear God, if I could just get through ONE day on tumblr without the endless infantalizing of TH, I would stop feeling like deleting my account is the only option. But it's getting harder to.
I don't get how someone can talk about how sexy he is in one breath, and then nanny him so hard in the next.
>>822 I hate nannies so much, they're the worst and TH's fandom is full of them. Reminds me of that TH astrology tumblr who hates when negative gossip of TH is mentioned like if he's some angel and goes on the attack to whomever mentions it. They'll say anything to keep him on that high pedestal. He's a grown man yet they treat him like a child yet in the same breath say he's so intelligent.
>>816, >>817 Agree that she misused the word. She also made up one in this phrase about TS: "urgently needed a professional, tactical, romantical distraction." One of the many issues with the tone of her article, which detracted from its claim to credibility.
>>817 TH having found "endless shades" of right and wrong is another example of the likely cognitive dissonance we talked about a few months ago. I get the feeling (from the GQ quote about "when your values are under attack," from various clips of him confronting autograph hounds with their wrongdoing, etc.) that he was raised by his family and probably by his schools to know very clear distinctions between right and wrong. But for whatever reason he started down the slippery slope (or waterslide) of prevaricating, and now his values may be mush. He's said that he learns about himself from each role he plays - wonder what he will take from Hamlet's dithering and endless debates with himself!
>>822, >>823 But could some of that be caused by Tom himself in the way he presents himself to the world? Until last summer, he seemed to come off as half world's-tallest-six-year-old goof and half would-flirt-with-a-lamppost sexpot. So is it entirely surprising that the blog writers alternate between wanting to mother him and f**k him?
I read those blogs mostly for the internecine warfare these days (one pair of them keeps having love-hate tiffs).
>>824 The tone of that GQ article with Taffy was inconsistent. One minute she's gushing over him and in another making fun of him. It was also hard sometimes to differentiate what TH actually said then what Taffy shoehorned her own opinion, especially concerning the infamous tank top.
Concerning your other post yeah TH has some blame for the perception his fans have about him. He did egg them on into putting him into this really high pedestal, his fans fell for his public persona really hard and probably think that's truly him 100% of the time when in reality he's probably not a lot of those things.
Ever since Crimson Peak he has been distancing himself from his fans and I think in some way getting with TS also played a hand in making his current at the time fanbase to go away since he was no longer single. That's why his fandom hated him so much, because they didn't deem TS worthy enough for TH not because of the antics he was playing with the press instead.
>>818 Well then RADA needs a COBRA meeting with the Donmar. Fangirl status: DEFCON 2, fangirl fuckery probable. If Miss Unrelated scores a ticket, they'll go to 1.
Something might be rotten in the state of Denmark - the first of many !! - but I wonder if it's just numbers. The hardcore segment would have all applied (the crazy a few times via their friends, relatives, psychiatrists, 15 cats) while 'normal' theatre-goers might have said, 'Fuck this for a game of soldiers, I'll spend my time and money on a sure thing.'
>>821 There will be sighing and swooning. I wouldn't think there will be a stage door so they'll need to 'connect' with him via their heart-eyes during the performance. There will undoubtedly be a lot of 'he looked right at me/we had a moment' tales on tumblr.
>>827 It probably is partly numbers/assisted applications, and partly that the true devotees have been working their social networks/blog followers to find someone to take them as their +1. Even the human behind Lego-Loki managed to score a ticket. Sigh (and not in a swooning way).
On a side note, one of the many special TV programs about Princess Diana started last night. While watching the footage of her courtship and honeymoon with Prince Charles, I was struck by how similar their body language was to most of what we saw from Tayto last summer! Charles/TS looked mostly tolerant/amused, while Diana/TH looked mostly shell shocked. Business arrangement on one side, not knowing what the hell you got yourself into on the other....
>>828 I've been chuckling at the idea of Tom as Princess Di - the big doe eyes, the love of the camera and the belief that there were 3 people in his relationship with TayTay - the third being the press, of course.
Happy weekend all!
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/12/james-ivory-shakespeare-film-fails-to-find-funding
"...lined up...."
And Sir Ken refusing to play second fiddle to DDL. Taking bets that on opening night KB pushes TH off the stage and takes over the part while the paramedics stretcher TH away as he sobs, 'But this was my redemption... my redemption.'
Umm, how best to put this...a Richard II with TH and DL wouldn't make a ripple at the US box office...that's the truth, thanks for asking.
What the actual fuck is this?!
"Ivory’s screenplay is written by Chris Terrio, who won an Oscar for Argo, Ben Affleck’s 2012 thriller about the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis."
Ivory's RII screenplay surely written by W. Shakespeare!!
This article is comedy gold!
Epic funding fail with Branagh and DDL; second epic fail with TH and DL.
KB and DDL fighting for the limelight.
Project is box office poison even with DL attached (and even after Billions, Homeland etc)
The market is saying something and JI secretly knows what that is. Ishmael Merchant was a great producer and the hard headed money man who got the funding in place and made Merchant Ivory a success. I have long suspected that Hollywood was only ever interested in them as a pair, and now JI admits as much: "Merchant died in 2005, but Ivory said: “Had he been around, [Richard II] would have been made. We don’t have a really good producer like Ismail.” That I think is the key to why this is not giving the money men of Hollywood a stiffie.
>>831 I think all screenplays have to have an author. In this case he would be more like an editor, unless they 'treated' the original text.
>>832 Despite my use of TH's go to 'Insert Lie Here' fill in, this really wouldn't get a second look in Hollywood or at the US box office - DL, TH, Ivory, etc. I've always found RII one of the more difficult texts - it's not an easy read like TotS, MAaN or JC - and one of the more boring history plays (sorry, Will S).
I think DL is kinda in the same boat as TH. Fans of him and his shows think he's A list but B/B- is probably more accurate in Hollywood's eyes.
>>833 When I said "even with DL attached" what I meant was that he is a long way up the pecking order from TH.
I agree he isn't A list - how many truly are these days, in the sense that they can get a movie made purely from their involvement, and can pretty much guarantee box office or great reviews or both? I can't think of many. The only name that currently springs to mind is Tom Hanks (of the men). I think it is a corollary of these big franchise movies. Iron Man is bigger than RDJ, Deadpool is bigger than Ryan Reynolds. I look back to the 70s and 80s and I wonder what happened. I remember watching the Oscars as a little kid in the late 80s and the front row was Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Robert de Niro, Harrison Ford, Ton Cruise. Huge stars who transcended their movies. On the red carpet this year it was a bunch of insta models and franchise tarts.
>>829 It was her flirting with the cameras that particularly reminded me of him!
>>830, >>832, >>833 Agree that RII, not just with this cast but probably any actors, doesn't have the making of an indie breakout in the US. It probably would do fine at the art houses.
Another challenge for JI may be his age. He's 89, and given that even if he got funding today, it might take a year or two to make the movie, investors also wouldn't want to risk him not being around to finish it.
>>833 But the character of Richard is a great role for an actor. The histories are a challenge, though, because it really helps to understand the issues with the succession to Edward III! (I've always suspected that the roses were a way for the sides to tell all those Plantagenets apart.)
>>830 Wonder if KB will do to Tom what Derek Jacobi supposedly did to him during rehearsals - push him aside with "no, no, dear boy - do it like this!"
>>837 I bet that for that fan the experience of meeting him was even better than getting a RadaHamlet ticket!
Leaving this here in return - Tom in a KSI interview on his psychological age (via torrilla): on twitter, /daisy_104/status/896805108712824832
Could explain a few things...
>>838 I have to say I felt very sorry for him after reading this. It's so incredibly intrusive. I'll set aside for a moment the coincidence of commuting from the same platform (is living near him a thing again for the fandom?). Maybe it is the fact that I am British, but the whole encounter to me read like someone who hated every moment of it but was far too polite to make a break for it (and not at all that he stayed willingly because he is such a great guy and loved the chat). I know it is a stereotype but many Brits would I think find it difficult to walk off after the initial hello and sit in a different carriage or behave in any way that signalled that they wanted to end the encounter. My workplace once held a fancy client party at the Gherkin and before we went a "mingling tips" list was handed out which said among other things how to escape from a conversation with a client that went on too long. These were mostly Oxbridge educated lawyers and they had to be taught how to walk off because they were terrified of appearing rude. Says a lot about the British mentality I think. "He didn't seem overly cheerful" - that's the clue, right there.
The other thing that made me sad for him was that on the same day another fan said in an anon on tumblr that they had spotted him on the tube and been too shy to approach him. All the nannies were saying "way to go, at least the other fan got her encounter." There seemed to be no sense at all that if they had each approached him he would have had all this twice in one day.
>>839 Really good points, especially for those of us who aren't British. And I realized after I'd read the posting that he probably was on his way home after rehearsal or something else to do with the show, and was likely very tired and needing to recharge.
I wonder if he feels obligated to talk to fans (as long as they're being polite). Or maybe he's just resigned to it and half tunes out during their chats.
It's lucky for him that some fans are too shy, and the Brits around him mostly too reserved, to approach him - otherwise he would get this all day every day that he steps outside his house. Perhaps it's still too important to him to have a semblance of a normal life, rather than hide in a limo with blackout windows as he could.
On a lighter note, I can't imagine an establishment here in the US being named the "Gherkin"!
I imagine the fangirls living by him/hanging out in the cafe thing hasn't really stopped. Maybe Tayto brought a few to their senses, but plenty wouldn't have been put off.
I don't understand what the nannies were saying. Were they being supportive of her decision not to approach or saying way to go, someone else got your conversation ?
I guess he's not driving because of congestion charges or parking?? He's not taking a limo because he can't afford it! And because, as you say, it probably makes him feel normal.
The Gherkin is the nickname for the conehead shaped building in the City. It doesn't really look like a gherkin but they couldn't call it the suppository or the vibrator. But I remember a bar in Boston being called The Pickle...I barely remember it!
Cringe...Apparently TH went to a wedding and after the speeches, got up, grabbed the mic and recited a monologue from Hamlet as a sort of wedding present.
I.have.no.words. If he'd done that at my wedding, I would have calmly left the bridal party table, grabbed the cake knife and sunk it into his skull while shouting, 'Now the day's all about TOM! Happy?' Is his need for attention so great? Even if the bride and groom were English professors, specializing in Shakespeare and had written a joint dissertation on Hamlet, this still is all sorts of wrong.
Episode 19, it's at the very end, 40:00 mark.
http://www.thedebrief.co.uk/things-to-do/tv-and-film/debrief-podcast-20170366916
PS If we could figure out the timing of this wedding, we could guess more accurately, though not pinpoint, when he started to memorize Hamlet.
>>841 And unfortunately the fangirls he lost from Tayto he probably regained thanks to KSI and all the "Tom Hiddleston is HAWT" tweets from viewers.
I'd guess the nannies were saying the latter, since most would give various body parts for a 10-minute chat with him.
Plus not driving because a Jag doesn't exactly project "regular guy." I bet he could afford a limo, but is too sensible with his money to go that route. Witness his favorite jogging bottoms.
Too funny about how the Gherkin got its name! The Pickle is a great name for a bar - double pun on drinking and getting into trouble....
>>842 Not to mention that none of Hamlet's speeches are exactly romantic! Wonder just how many champers cocktails he'd had by that point in the proceedings?
I'd bet he started memorizing it oh, about the time of Branagh's Hamlet ('96). Sounds about right for a 15-year-old aspiring thespian. (More seriously, I could see him using some speeches for scene study work at RADA.)
For those of you who (wisely) passed on seeing KSI, this Movie Sins vid will tell you everything you need to know about it in about 20 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNniLJGd1ts
>>842 Omg...is he really that obnoxious or he really can't read a room? Was he trying to show off to charm a bridesmaid into bed? I think it'd be hilarious if this Hamlet story ties into the shagging in an Airbnb story LOL! I find him reciting Hamlet at the wedding so obnoxious...whatever happened to giving a juicer or blender?
>>845 Am I being petty if I say that I don't even want to waste 20 min. on it? Did anyone end up seeing it? I'll watch when it makes its way to Netflix or cable, but I learned my lesson after ISTL.
>>846 He shagged a bridesmaid in an airbnb? Is this from NW3 or the Town Bicycle?
>>844 Not so sure about the limo. If he's 'gifting' speeches instead of blenders >>846, we're talking serious austerity measures! ;)
>>847 There was a Guilty Feminist podcast with Sara Pascoe who claimed she knew someone who had shagged Tom Hiddleston in an Airbnb. The host had asked something like you think he only shags models and Sara had apparently said that she thinks shaggers shag anyone willing. Sara never said this all directly, the host recapped their pre-podcast convo. It was episode 47. Right at the beginning. So I jokingly thought it'd be funny if this Hamlet wedding story was connected to that Airbnb one.
The Airbnb story had caused some ruckus where some fans joked about Tom renting out Airbnb for his one nights stands and other fans took them too seriously as an assault on Hiddles' pristine character.
>>845 I saw JVR having a conniption over that. He's acting like he made Schindler's List and ppl are making fun of it. Calm down douchebro, you made a pulpy pop flick, not some pensive piece of art. Wasn't he high off his rocker during the entire shoot anyways? At least he looked it in vids the cast would post.